Peter Scriverius

Peter Scriverius, a renowned poet and scholar, provided verses to accompany Hendrik Goltzius’s portrait Frederik de Vries (1923.1068). Here Scriverius himself appears in the fifth portrait of a series of prints depicting four famous Dutchmen (Quatuor Personae), for which he wrote celebratory Latin poems. Dutch translations appear below several of these sheets, assuring a wider audience for the prints. Cornelis Visscher’s lively engravings feature illusionistic twists in the helmet, baton, and book that extend into the viewer’s space.